[FACT OR FAKE #78] Did This Girl Really Use Sex To Finance Her Cross-Country Road Trip?
A 19-year-old female backpacker from Shanghai, allegedly posted an ad on Weibo, offering sex with men in every city she visits, so she could have funds for travelling the country. Really? Your SAYS' FACT OR FAKE columnist digs through Internet mess to unearth the truth.
By Sadho Ram — 02 Nov 2014, 11:50 AM — Updated almost 10 years ago
If you, by any chance, weren't on a social media sabbatical last week, you would very well be aware about an extremely viral story of a 19-year-old beautiful girl from Shanghai who was seeking 'temporary boyfriends' to help fund her road-trip across China
At first appearing as an ad posted on Weibo, the story was picked up by several UK media sites, including The Telegraph, Elite Daily and Mirror, sending the whole of Internet abuzz with moral outrage and young men around the world into an euphoric trance
The story, with its 'highly inflammable' content, prompted several to pass judgmental remarks and term the 19-year-old Shanghai girl, named Ju Peng, as 'a prostitute', because critics said her offer is nothing short of prostitution.
But the reality of it is far from what has been purported and made to believe - or to put it more aptly - lured and seduced into a stunt deserving of most epic of the facepalm in the history of mankind
I'm sorry, did my claim made you cringe? Well, what I'm going to reveal next will actually make you want to facepalm yourself. So how much of this Ju Peng's story, which claims she is looking for "temporary boyfriends" who must be "good looking, under 30, taller than 1.75 metres and, of course, rich." is FACT or FAKE? Read on...
FAKE: The story, as it turns out, is actually a false advertisement. You see, as The Washington Post puts it, 'even Chinese start-ups aren't immune to the lure of the viral marketing hoax'.
The 19-year-old's profile, and at least one other, were actually created by a dating app called Youjia, which promised sex in return for food and accommodations.
On Wednesday, Shanghai Daily reported, China's State Internet Information Office actually ordered the company to shut down over the "fake and unethical" advertising.
"The company crossed the line for promotion. (The stories) contained fake and unethical content," China's State Internet Information Office said in a statement. The firm admitted to failings in the management of its marketing and promotion activities.
One of the news stories, titled “Body for Traveling,” told of a young woman who financed a tour of the country by swapping sexual favors with “temporary boyfriends” she met through Youjia in return for food and accommodation.
shanghaidaily.comA second, “Sex in an Excavator,” told how a 21-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman — who also met through the app — decided to have sex while waiting to be rescued from an earthmover in Shanghai’s Putuo District.
shanghaidaily.comBoth stories spread extensively over the Internet and were carried by newspapers across China. “The company crossed the line for promotion,” the information office said in a statement. “(The stories) contained fake and unethical content,” it said.
shanghaidaily.com